“A monument will be erected to him”: the Americans were shocked by Kaprizov, who repeated Ovechkin’s record

Minnesota Wild, led by Kirill Kaprizov, defeated a very difficult opponent – the strongest team in the Pacific Division, the Calgary Flames, which had previously won three consecutive victories. Moreover, it was the “lights” that opened the score in the match.

Russian defender Nikita Zadorov smashed the puck into someone else’s territory, dodging two opponents and sending a bullet over the board, where Matthew Tkachuk picked it up and went to a high five, and there Johnny Gaudreau hit the goalkeeper of the “wild” Cam. Talbot (1:0).

After such a “Minnesota” started, and only four minutes later, the efforts of Jonas Brodin evened the score (1:1) and unexpectedly took the lead at the end of the match.

Wilds forward Matt Baldy pressed Calgary defender Eric Goodbranson near the boards and made an erroneous pass—directly on the bat, to Frederic Gaudreau (2:1), who sent the puck into the corner close to a few yards.

Wild had little way to go before victory, but three minutes before the final siren, Calgary tied the score.

Zadorov took the puck into someone else’s field, approached the target and went to the penny, but none of the partners managed to close and the bullet returned to the Russians. Then the defender spotted lone Elias Lindholm and made the pass, and the Swede hit the Minnesota gate in the middle of the zone with an excellent wrist shot (2:2).

The meeting went to overtime, and the defender of the “lights” Rasmus Andersson was almost immediately ejected.

For Calgary, that was the verdict: Kirill Kaprizov entered the case, converting that majority in just ten seconds.

The Russians replaced the puck with Kevin Fiala, and while the skate was closer to the net, he passed a pass to his partner Ryan Hartman, and all the Flames players watched his moves. Then Hartman instantly snapped back to Kaprizov, who brought Minnesota a victory by touching his trademark on the knee (3:2).

This allowed the “wilds” to score significant points and eventually move to second place in the Central Division standings, beating the “St. Louis Blues”.

Minnesota will have the home advantage in the first round of the Stanley Cup (which will definitely face St. Louis) unless the teams change their positions with one remaining NHL regular season game. Thus, the “savages” will play the first two games of the series at home, which should give them a serious advantage.

Only two NHL leaders, the Florida Panthers and Colorado Avalanche, have lost less than Minnesota at home this season.

And if the series lasts a maximum of seven games, the decisive meeting, which can have a huge impact on the outcome, will also be held on the Wild ground.

As for the games on the Louis ice, all is bad for the “savages” there: they have not won away against the “bluesmen” since the 2018/19 season.

So Kaprizov’s goal could be a decisive factor in the success of Minnesota, which has not made it past the first round of the Stanley Cup for seven years.

After this abandoned puck, the Russian scored 106 points (46 goals + 60 assists) in 80 NHL regular season games. In the scoring race, Toronto’s American superstar caught up with Auston Matthews and is now in sixth place.

Kaprizov also repeated the personal success of Ovechkin in 2005/06 and Malkin (2007/08), who scored 106 points per season.

The record among the Russians belongs to Nikita Kucherov, who scored 128 points in the 2018/19 season. This year Kaprizov will not be able to catch up with him, but he is still ahead.

American fans were delighted with the Russian forward “Minnesota” and the compliments quoted by Inoprosport after the match.

“I have never loved any athlete as much as I loved Kaprizov,” Connor_779 wrote. “It literally changed everything about Minnesota.

My apologies to Mikko Koivu, who played for Wild for many years, but Kirill is just one thing.

“If this guy helps the team win the Stanley Cup, Kaprizov will erect a monument in front of the entrance to Wild’s pitch,” Bhallerm said.

I’ve never seen a player in our arena treat Kaprizov as warmly as they do now! Burnsie728 is the absolute adoration of people of all ages.”

“In his second season in the NHL, 46 goals and over 100 points? It’s kind of insane,” says S_DUB_G.